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Air France pilot unions SNPL, SPAF and ALTER announced June 17 they would strike again from June 24-27. They said the decision to go ahead with a new bout of action was made after a meeting with Air France management failed to reach any agreements. The unions said they had put forward new compromise proposals, but the airline refused to make any decisions before the arrival of Air France-KLM’s new chairman and CE Jean-Marc Janaillac. However, they added, the company wanted to press ahead with outstanding actions from its Transform 2015 turnaround plan immediately. Air France said it regretted the notice of new strike action. The last 4-day round of walkouts, which affected around 20% of Air France’s flights, ended June 14 and the carrier said the disruption cost it more than E40m (US$45m). <br/>

Kenya Airways is facing more cash flow pressures from exchange losses expected from the effective devaluation of the Nigeria currency this week. Nigeria is one of 4 countries from whom Kenya Airways has been unable to retrieve US$25m paid to its agents because of a foreign exchange crunch. The others are Angola, Mozambique and South Sudan. The devaluation of the Naira, going by the black market exchange rates, could see the remittances shed up to half of their value in dollar terms. There are also no guarantees that hard currency will be readily available to back future sales. For Kenya Airways, which has its West African operations headquartered in the country, the expected inflationary pressure is also likely to constrain travel, dampening its revenue growth in the market. <br/>